Celebrating St. Patrick’s With An Old Letter That Will Hopefully Leave You ‘Feelin’ The Bern’!

To all of you who are Irish or who wish you were Irish for a day or four this time of year, I raise a mug of Guinness for a Happy St. Patrick’s weekend and first day of spring – this March 20th – to one and all of us who make up the 99 %.

A few of the countless thousands gathered for a past St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Buffalo, New York. That parade is back this Sunday, March 22nd, starting at noon on Delaware Avenue. Maybe we’ll see you there.

As for the remaining 1 % – all of the tax-dodging billionaires out there – let’s raise our mugs again to not letting them crash the party. They’ve crashed more than enough decent-paying jobs and opportunities for the rest of us to live the middle-class dream already.

And speaking of the billionaires, here is to the only candidate for high office on the continent who has continued to wage a political revolution aimed at making them start paying their fair share and stop out-sourcing millions of good jobs.

That candidate is U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who is now running for President of the United States and speaking of the Irish, here is a letter he sent to then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 36 years ago, when he was the Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, calling for the humane treatment of Irish prisoners in her government’s custody.

The letter, signed by Bernie Sanders and a member of his Burlington, Vermont council at the time, is one more piece of evidence that fighting for justice for everyday people is nothing new to this guy. He has been doing it all of his adult life.

Here’s the letter.

If you had difficulty reading the image posted of the letter, here is the text, dated July 15th, 1981;

“Dear Mrs. Thatcher,

“We are deeply disturbed by your government’s unwillingness to stop the abuse, humiliation and degrading treatment of the Irish prisoners now on a hunger strike in Northern Ireland.”

“We ask you to end your intransigent policy toward the prisoners before the reputation of the English people for fair play and simple decency is further damaged in the eyes of the people of Vermont and the United States.”

Enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, the spring unfolding before us, and make a pledge to support the Buffalo for Bernie Sanders campaign to help get a truly progressive voice for fairness and peace for all, and for fighting climate change elected President of the United States.

And to all of my fellow Canadians out there, you can help too. We could certainly use a President Bernie Sanders to keep our provincial and federal governments on a more progressive path.